Life? Choice? Baby? Pregnancy?

Have you ever read a pregnancy book? I'm currently working my way through 21 of them as part of my midwifery course. And as I've read I've been amazed at the dichotomy and duplicity of every author's vocabulary when it comes to the baby. On one page they will tell you that it is so wonderful to do a sonogram and see the heartbeat, or to see how the baby is definitely a tiny human, and then turn right around and say that if such and such is wrong (downs syndrome, or other defects) the "pregnancy" can be terminated! It is mind blowing to think that in our country right now you can have an abortion up to 24 weeks of gestation! Most people have already felt the baby move by that time, and yet it's legal to "terminate" the "pregnancy" if you so chose? They can't even say that it's just tissue then, they cant even use that argument for a 12 abortion! Babies look distinctly human by the 12th week and if you do an ultra sound you will see a heartbeat and get to see the baby moving around even though you can't feel it yet.

And the thought of killing a baby just because there is "something wrong" sickens me. How would it be if went around killing all of the born people that we thought had something wrong with them? Oh that right that already happened in Germany under Hitler and the whole world thought it was WRONG!! But it's just fine to kill that unborn, though no less alive, baby because it has and extra chromosome or isn't formed just the way you want it? And woman's choice? That woman made a choice to sleep with that guy and now you can face the consequences like a woman! In the case of rape you didn't make that choice but it's not that baby's fault either and you shouldn't kill it just because it's daddy is a worthless piece of slime sucking scum. Even if you can't raise the baby there are hundreds of couples who can't have children and would LOVE to adopt that little baby. It is a new life. Not a "choice"

Building on that, I think our society's definition of life is way off. I believe that life starts at conception, others believe that it starts at birth, however let's define life with death. Clinical death occurs when the heart stops beating and the person is then pronounced dead. By law of opposites life should be defined by when there is a heartbeat. That happens at 6 weeks! So you can argue that life doesn't start at conception, but it sure as heck starts long before birth, and it is legal to take that life until the 24th week.

 It saddens me to see people kidding themselves and others by referring to that life, that baby, as just a "pregnancy" when you want to "terminate", a.k.a. kill, it.

Thus ends my rant for the day.

Baby's First Picture

                                                            Supplies all ready to go

                                                               Baby's very first picture

                                                     Examination to make sure he is perfect

One Down Many More to Come

A week ago today I witnessed the miracle of birth for the very first time! It was AMAZING, and happened so fast that I was only on the other side of the bedroom and almost MISSED it! We, my mother (the senior midwife) and I, had been with the mom-to-be since about 3:00am that Friday morning while she labored in the Jacuzzi. Her labor was progressing but her water had not broken, and she was getting tired. (she had been in mild labor since sometime Thursday) At about 5:10am Mom asked me to sterilize and extra little clamp that could be used to snip the amniotic sac if the baby was born without it having broken. At this point we thought that we were still a ways away from having a baby and the Father was actually watching sports in the living room. :)

All of a sudden there was a shout from the bedroom so he and I dashed in to see what was going on! The next few minutes are a little blurred but I'm going to try and piece them together for y'all. ;) Let me set the stage for you first; picture a cozy little cottage room with two twin beds, the one on the left is all prepped for a birth, the bed on the right (and closest to the bathroom with the Jacuzzi) is not set up for a birth. Naturally, as is always the case with Murphy's law, the Mom had only made it to the right bed when that monster contraction hit and brought her husband and I running in. When we got into the room the Mother-to-be was still on the edge of the right bed and my Mom was kneeling by her in the narrow (like only 2 1/2 feet) space between the bed and the wall. Mom then gave directions for the Dad to get behind the Mother and support her from behind, and for me to get her the box of gloves which she thought she had left in the bathroom. I squeezed past her (literally squeezed) into the bathroom, only to discover that she had moved them to the night stand of the left bed in preparation of the birth. Just then the Mother's water broke! All over the bed, the floor, and my Mom! I then squeezed back past my Mom, through the puddle of amniotic fluid on the floor, and quickly made my way over to the other side of the bed to get the gloves.

 Then, just as I was about to hand Mom the gloves, with one final contraction and NO PUSHING the baby practically flew out!!! I kid you not! He (it was a boy) pretty much just fell out after the membrane that had been holding him back had broken. Mom caught him in mid air, I grabbed the towel, that we had laid out to wrap him in, and wrapped him up all in the space of about thirty seconds!!  Then while I held the baby Mom clamped and cut the cord so that we could easily move the Mother over to the prepared bed. We were all astonished at how fast he was born, excited that he was here, and happy to see him!! After that we weighed and measured the baby, checked him to make sure that there were 10 fingers and 10 toes and everything else was where it was supposed to be.

After the placenta was delivered the Mother had lost a fair amount of blood and couldn't get up without being dizzy so we gave her a sponge bath, remade the right bed and made her comfortable on it so she could rest.


All in all it was quite the extraordinary event and I was thrilled to have been there!!

Until next time...

~Megan